The death penalty is a cruel, futile and dangerous punishment, and the Asian region is home to some of the world's leading executioners.
This blog provides information about the death penalty in Asia, supporting the campaign to end executions in the region.

First, it enacts a specific Commonwealth torture offence in the Commonwealth Criminal Code, to operate concurrently with existing offences in State and Territory criminal laws.

Second, it amends the Commonwealth Death Penalty Abolition Act 1973to extend the application of the current prohibition on the death penalty to State laws, to ensure the death penalty cannot be introduced anywhere in Australia.

The overarching purpose behind these amendments is, in the spirit of engagement with international human rights mechanisms, to ensure that Australia complies fully with its international obligations to combat torture and to demonstrate our commitment to the worldwide abolitionist movement.

[Speech addresses the abolition of torture aspects of the bill]

Abolition of the Death PenaltyAustralia has a long-standing policy of opposition to the death penalty. Australia is a party to both the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Second Optional Protocol to the Covenant Aiming at the Abolition of the Death Penalty.

The ICCPR only permits the death penalty for the 'most serious crimes'. The Second Optional Protocol goes further and requires Australia to take all necessary measures to abolish the death penalty within its jurisdiction and to ensure that no one within its jurisdiction is subject to the death penalty.

The death penalty has been formally abolished in all jurisdictions in Australia.

It was first abolished for Commonwealth and Territory offences in 1973, by the Commonwealth Death Penalty Abolition Act. Each State has independently and separately abolished the death penalty, and there are no proposals by any State or Territory Government to reinstate the death penalty.

The purpose of the legislation is to extend the application of the current prohibition on the death penalty to State laws. This will ensure that the death penalty cannot be reintroduced anywhere in Australia in the future.

The amendments emphasise Australia's commitment to our obligations under the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and ensure that Australia continues to comply with those obligations.

Such a comprehensive rejection of capital punishment will also demonstrate Australia’s commitment to the worldwide abolitionist movement, and complement Australia’s international lobbying efforts against the death penalty.

In summary, this Bill contains important measures which again demonstrate this Government's ongoing commitment to better recognise Australia's international human rights obligations.

The Bill implements a specific Commonwealth offence of torture into the Commonwealth Criminal Code.

The new offence will operate concurrently with existing offences in State and Territory laws.

"Introducing a specific Commonwealth offence of torture will more clearly fulfil Australia's obligations under the United Nations Convention Against Torture to ban all acts of torture, wherever they occur," Mr McClelland said.

The Bill also amends the Commonwealth Death Penalty Abolition Act 1973to extend the application of the current prohibition on the death penalty to State laws, to ensure the death penalty cannot be introduced anywhere in Australia.

The Bill was developed in consultation with the States and Territories.

Amending the Death Penalty Abolition Act 1973 to cover State laws will safeguard Australia's ongoing compliance with the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights aiming at the Abolition of the Death Penalty.

"It will ensure the death penalty cannot be reintroduced anywhere in Australia in the future," Mr McClelland said.

"The purpose of these amendments is to ensure that Australia complies fully with its international obligations to combat torture and to demonstrate our commitment to the worldwide movement for the abolition of the death penalty."

"Taking these steps demonstrates our fundamental opposition to acts that are contrary to basic human values."

Sunday, 8 November 2009

Amnesty International issued the following urgent action appeal for a Malaysian man at risk imminent risk of execution in Singapore.

URGENT ACTIONMALAYSIAN MAN FACING EXECUTION IN SINGAPORE

Yong Vui Kong was sentenced to death for drug trafficking in January 2009. He had exhausted his appeals by October, and can now escape execution only if the president grants clemency

Yong Vui Kong was arrested in June 2007, when he was 19, by officers from the Central Narcotics Bureau. He was charged with trafficking 42.27 grams of heroin, and then sentenced to death in January 2009

He had been working as a messenger for a man in Malaysia who often asked him to collect money from debtors or deliver packages as "gifts" to people in Singapore and Malaysia. At his trial, Yong Vui Kong said he had not known what was in the packages, and when he asked, he had simply been told not to open them. The judge, however, ruled that Yong must have been aware of their contents, saying in his written summation, "I found that the accused had failed to rebut the presumption against him. I am of the view that the prosecution had proved its case against the accused beyond reasonable doubt, and I therefore found the accused guilty as charged and sentenced him to suffer death

Yong was convicted under the Misuse of Drugs Act, which provides that anyone found guilty of illegally importing, exporting or trafficking more than 15 grams of heroin will automatically receive a mandatory death sentence

Governments need to address crimes, including drug trafficking, but there is no clear evidence that the death penalty deters crime more effectively than other forms of punishment. The UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions stated in his 2005 report that the "mandatory death penalty, which precludes the possibility of a lesser sentence being imposed regardless of the circumstances, is inconsistent with the prohibition of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment." To date, 139 countries have abolished death penalty in law or practice

PLEASE WRITE IMMEDIATELY in English, Mandarin or your own language:Urging the president to grant clemency to Yong Vui Kong and commute his death sentence;Expressing concern that because the death penalty is mandatory for drug-trafficking cases, the court had no discretion to sentence Yong Vui Kong to an alternative punishment;Calling on the president to introduce a moratorium on executions, with a view to complete abolition of the death penalty.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATIONThe authorities in Singapore do not release any information about the use of the death penalty in the country. At least one person is known to have been hanged so far in 2009, and at least three sentenced to death; in 2008, at least one person was hanged and five sentenced to death. The true figures are likely to be higher. The government has always maintained that the death penalty is not a human rights issue, and consistently lobbied other nations against the abolition of the death penalty.

All capital cases are tried by the High Court; convicted prisoners can appeal, and if they are unsuccessful they can apply to the president for clemency. President Nathan, who has been in power since 1999, is not known to have granted clemency to any condemned prisoner.

Saturday, 7 November 2009

Beijing's first permanent lethal injection facility has been completed, ahead of plans to abolish execution by firing squad for criminals next year.

The new facility is within the Beijing No 1 Detention Center in Chaoyang district, the Beijing Youth Daily reported yesterday, quoting sources from three intermediate courts. Court personnel responsible for executions have recently received training in operation of the beds, injection pumps and other equipment.

Beijing's justice authority did not provide details about the new facility yesterday, and it is unknown how many execution beds the facility has prepared.

Most criminal executions this year were carried out by a firing squad at various sites in suburban Beijing, the justice authority said. Condemned prisoners are blindfolded and turned away from court marshals.

A small number received a lethal injection.

Experts familiar with execution methods said the reform had taken years to implement.

"This is no longer the time for public executions," said Qu Xinjiu, a criminal law professor at the China University of Politics and Law.

"The harshness of the execution is not necessary to horrify the public and torture the criminals, who also deserve decent deaths," said Zhao Bingzhi, secretary-general of the China Law Science Society Criminal Law Research Institute.

Zheng Xiaoyu, executed on July 10, 2007, was the last senior official to die from lethal injection. He was convicted of corruption during his tenure as director of the State Food and Drug Administration.

Zhao said lethal injection for corrupt officials was not an act of mercy for those in power.

"The officials who received lethal injections were known because of media reports. But the practice is not restricted to officials only, the other cases just went unreported," said Zhao.

It costs the Beijing government about 700 yuan ($103) to carry out one execution by firing squad. Lethal injection is expected to cost more money because of the technology involved.

Media reported in June that courts will likely use sodium thiopental, a rapid anaesthetic, as a component of the injection. The process takes about one minute.

The US also use this drug for condemned prisoners.

Lethal injection practices have been gradually put into operation since 1997 in 15 provinces and municipalities around China.

Justice authorities in Beijing have been reluctant to use the practice widely.

The Beijing government does not release the number of executed criminals each year.